Silence of the Daylight, Part III
Silence of the Daylight, Part III
As the sun descends, the directors three put up their forcefield, and strangely, it only covers the hospital grounds. An interview with them tomorrow will tell Twilight that they hadn't drawn the circles as large as they were supposed to, and that Nose had gone and messed his up anyway.
Foals look outside the windows, and shudder when they see dark shadows running around the streets as it gets darker and darker. Their parents draw the curtains, holding them close and telling them they are safe here.
Rainbow Dash looks out the window. The shadows skittering across the empty streets of ruined Ponyville is like watching ants crawl over a dead body: silent and unnerving. She closes the curtains, thoroughly shaken. Across from her, Shatterstorm shuffles a deck of cards for their fourteenth game of Go Graze.
"Something on your mind?" he asks.
Her eyes fall to the rib on the sidetable. So far, no monster had tried to invade the Hospital and grab it. This whole guard duty thing feels more like a waste of time to somepony as active as Rainbow Dash. It isn't much more fun than her last visit to the Hospital. At least then she had a Daring Do book instead of having to put up with this chauvinist.
"Yeah," she says finally. She thinks over her question. "I don't mean anything against you personally when I say this, but why didn't the Royal Guard or the Night Guard come help out Ponyville when it was under attack? Heck, why didn't they send us any relief effort?"
Shatterstorm, not making any attempt at eye contact, continues to shuffle the deck. "Well, the Princesses have disappeared along with their whole castle and everypony within, a monster-castle has appeared in Canterlot, everypony in Canterlot besides the military and research teams have fled, Princess Cadance has her hooves full trying to sub for her aunts and run her own empire and check on her husband the Captain who has contracted a weird disease, and there's the very big possibility that other towns were attacked on the same night."
He looks up to Rainbow Dash as she stares at him, stunned at such a blunt answer. He smirks. "To summarize, if we wore pants often enough, the monsters would have caught us while they were down."
Rainbow Dash snorts and suppresses a laugh. Shatterstorm deals her a hand. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash snaps up. "Wait," she says, "I didn't know Twilight's brother got sick! Why didn't she tell me?!"
Shatterstorm bites his lip and looks away. "Ah, well, er..."
Before Shatterstorm can think of a decent lie, Twilight Sparkle enters the room, carrying her bag of materials. Rainbow Dash wastes no time in getting confrontational. "Twilight!" she says at a louder volume than she intends, "What's this about your brother being sick?! Why didn't you tell us?"
Twilight groans as she puts the bag down. Before she answers, her eyes go wide and she gasps. Shatterstorm immediately puts his cards down and stands up. "What's wrong?"
Twilight Sparkle facehoofs. "With everything else going on, I totally forgot to keep in contact with Roaring Yawn!"
"Roaring Y—? Who's he? What's going on?!" Rainbow Dash growls.
Twilight wipes her face in exasperation. "One at a time, Rainbow Dash," she says. "Roaring Yawn is a friend of mine over in Canterlot. He's studying my brother to figure out what's wrong with him, as well as researching the bodies we found in the Castle."
As Rainbow Dash opens her mouth, Shatterstorm hushes her. "Don't you hush me!" she barks.
He ignores her anyway. "Do you want me to go get Spike?" he asks over Rainbow Dash bellyaching about everypony ignoring her.
"No, that's not necessary. He should be coming back here right about now anyway. I'll have him write the letter when he gets here."
Rainbow Dash puts herself between the two. "Look, guys! If you want me to be a part of this, how about telling me what's going on!"
Shatterstorm grunts. "Ignore what I said earlier."
"I can't! You think I'm just gonna sit here while a friend of mine's brother is in trouble?!"
Finally, Shatterstorm caves. "Okay, fine," he growls. "The Captain of the Royal Guard has been incapacitated recently via an acute physical contamination of ancient magical properties that has the unfortunate side-effect of uncontrollable violent urges and periods of prolonged lethargy."
A long pause. Rainbow Dash looks at Shatterstorm as if he has suddenly turned into a turkey. "...What?"
Shatterstorm rolls his eyes. "He's sick, okay? Shining Armor is not well. Roaring Yawn is a scientist who specializes in the study of ancient, often forbidden magics, and he is using his expertise to study what's wrong with him and work on a cure." He breathes a sigh. "We done?" he asks Rainbow Dash.
"Why didn't you tell us before, Twilight?" she asks her friend, her voice now mild.
Shatterstorm saves Twilight the trouble of answering. "Well, are any of you guys doctors?"
He feels a sharp kick to his foreleg and winces. "Wasn't talkin' to you," Rainbow Dash mutters.
Twilight rolls her eyes and begins to set up her equipment on the side table, next to the rib. "As rude as he is, Shatterstorm's correct. I didn't think it was important for you guys to know. Nopony among us knows anything about medicine, and I only have a cursory knowledge on ancient forbidden magic. It isn't as if there's anything any of us can do, and we have our hooves full here, so I just didn't say anything."
She sets a dialed machine down amongst the other equipment, her bag now empty save for some snacks Spike thought Twilight might want to nosh on while studying the rib. She helps herself to one while Rainbow Dash looks aside awkwardly.
"You could have just told us anyway," Rainbow Dash says. "I mean... we're here for you, Twi."
Maybe it's the situation. Maybe it's the lack of proper sleep or nutrition. Whatever the reason is, Twilight becomes agitated. "I've already cried my eyes out over it, Rainbow Dash, and I just... I don't want anymore." She turns her attention to her equipment and connects some of them together to form a larger machine, breathing an irritated sigh.
Silence passes as Twilight sets up the device. Rainbow Dash looks behind her to see Shatterstorm still standing there, nonchalant. "We should probably leave her alone," Rainbow Dash whispers.
"Alone with an evil rib that powerful monsters are looking for?" Shatterstorm whispers back. "Not a good idea. You can go if you wanna, but I'm staying."
A second or so passes between Shatterstorm and Rainbow Dash. Twilight clicks on the device and as it hums to life, Rainbow Dash stands up straight, keeping an eye on the rib.
Spike's claw feels cramped. Twisted. Like something inside it is about to blow.
"Yeesh," he says to Twilight, "Tell this guy your shoe size, why don't you?" He puts down his pen and massages his wrist. "So many details..."
Twilight hasn't turned from her observation of the rib the entire time she dictated her letter, pressing this button or turning that knob. "They're important details, Spike! These are things Roaring Yawn should be prepared to deal with. I mean, he is currently stationed in a Canterlot hotel that's pretty much down the street from that black castle."
Fluttershy's timid voice pipes up behind her. "I-Isn't he scared?"
"I know I'd be, but..." Twilight's voice trails off as she looks behind herself to see that all her friends have gathered. "When did you guys get in?"
"About midway through the letter," Rarity says. "Rainbow Dash told us about your brother, darling. Is there anything we can do to help?"
Twilight sighs, making a mental note to strangle Rainbow Dash later. "Not really. I'm depending on a friend of mine who knows how to help him. Which is why I'm writing this letter in the first place." She looks up to her friends and is greeted by their frowns. "But, uh, thanks for asking!" she adds hastily, hoping she didn't offend anypony.
Spike rolls up the completed letter. "So, uh, this Roaring Yawn guy... you realize I still gotta know what he looks like if you want me to send this to him."
Twilight nods. "OK, well, picture this blue unicorn stallion, kinda biggish, blonde mane, glasses, green eyes..."
Spike frowns. "Details are too vague. I mean, give me a visual here."
Digging through her recreational reading (in case she ever remembered to take a break), Twilight finds the latest issue of Cryptology Monthly. She rifles through it, trying to find that article on Nevermore the Perverse. Finally, she falls on a half-page photograph of Roaring Yawn. Now that she's met the guy, she guesses that he himself probably demanded that picture to take up a quarter of the article's page space
"Here, this is what he looks like." She floats it to Spike. Out of curiosity, her friends all look over Spike's shoulder. After drinking in the photograph a second, they look back up wearing sly grins, except for Pinkie Pie who doesn't seem to know what's going on. After some silence, Twilight shrugs. "What?"
Applejack nudges Rarity in the shoulder. "Does our Twi know how to pick 'em or what?"
Rainbow Dash smiles. "I'll say! Lookit the size of this guy! And those eyes! He looks like a real beast. Hard to believe he's an egghead like Twi."
Fluttershy merely covers her mouth and giggles, blushing.
Rarity skims the article over Spike's shoulder as Twilight blushes. "It says that Roaring Yawn is only in his late twenties. And he's already an authority in a field of magic studies? So accomplished!"
Spike laughs. "When were you gonna tell us about your new boyfriend, Twilight?"
Pinkie Pie gasps. "We should throw a She's-Got-A-New-Boyfriend-We-Didn't-Know-About party for Twilight!"
Twilight shakes her head and groans in irritation, her face redder than a tomato. "I-It's not like that, guys!"
As the girls all continue to tease Twilight by fawning over Roaring Yawn, Shatterstorm rolls his eyes, releasing a small, exasperated groan. Jeez, they all talk about him like a bunch of lovestruck teenyboppers. Shatterstorm shakes his head and makes for the door. "There's too much estrogen in here. I'm gonna be right outside."
Rainbow Dash smirks. "Whatsamatter, Shatters? Afraid your balls are gonna fall off if you stay too long?"
"Hey, if it happened to you, it could happen to me," Shatterstorm says over his shoulder as he opens the door. "Can't blame a guy for being cautious."
At this, the whole room erupts in either laughter, blushes, scandalized shock, or some mixture of the three—all except for Rainbow Dash, who wears a scowl.
It's been five days since the attack on Ponyville now.
In that time, the hospital's three directors have been able to cast their shield spell to cover the entire town each night without incident. The Mayor has gathered as many volunteers as she can to gather supplies and clear debris. Good news is given to Ponyville as the postal system still runs—albeit barely, with many mailponies abandoning their posts to be with their families. The citizens of Ponyville learn that similar attacks have been made on several other towns, and worry for their relatives. Soon, after tears are shed for the lost, Ponyville begins to rebuild herself, closing open wounds and connecting broken bones.
Strangely, no outright monster attacks have occured, not even an attempt.
Applejack and her family replant lost trees while cleaning up what remains, and sleep in their barn when it is night. Rarity has sent word to her parents, and she awaits them at the Hospital, not taking any time off from caring for her sister in her darkest time. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy help feed the children, tell them stories, keep their minds off the chaos and their spirits high. Aeon supervises the activities of these ponies, half in general curiosity and half in genuine concern for them.
And Twilight?
Twilight has been in that hospital room, with Shatterstorm and Rainbow Dash, studying the rib these few days. While Rainbow Dash and Shatterstorm have alternated shifts to bathe, sleep, exercise, and eat, Twilight often has to be pulled away from her research in order to take care of herself. Spike fears that she might become obsessive of this study, as she has obsessed before.
"Don't you think that you're taking this too far?" he asks her as she steps out of the bathroom.
"Spike," Twilight says, "I'm studying that rib so that I can locate the remaining pieces. This is important!"
Spike frowns. "So's going to the bathroom. This is the first time you've used it in the past two days, isn't it?"
Twilight's eyes dart away. "N-No," she lies.
"How about eating then, or bathing? You stink like the dead, and there aren't any more snacks in the bag I packed you. Haven't been since yesterday, and the food the hospital staff gave us this morning is still sitting on that counter. You haven't even touched your share of it, and it's already spoiled."
After a fierce staredown, Twilight throws her hooves in the air. "Okay, fine! I'll take a break." She opens the door to leave for the showers, and turns to Shatterstorm and Rainbow Dash. "Keep an eye on that rib, OK?"
As she exits the room, Shatterstorm gets on the bed and stretches, flaps his wings, and settles down catlike over the covers. He looks to Spike. "Thanks, man. I didn't wanna say anything but... she was really starting to worry me."
Spike shrugs. "No problem, she gets like that all the time when she studies something. She'd probably starve to death if I didn't remind her to eat."
Shatterstorm laughs. "And you gotta live with her?" He shakes his head. "I feel sorry for ya, man."
Rainbow Dash looks at the two of them as they converse. It's good that Spike has found another male he can confide in, but does it have to be Shatterdork? Like why couldn't Spike get along with one of the other stallions? Like Big Macintosh, or Time Turner, or Noteworthy, or somepony like that? Somepony friendlier.
Or maybe it's Shatterstorm who needs a friend right now. He did mention something about some Tiger guy he was chummy with, but he didn't elaborate on what happened to him. She surmised he must think her slow, female brain can't handle a sensitive topic like death. He's so transparently macho when he's not around other males, trying to act tough but just coming off a bully.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash is ripped from her thoughts when she hears a scream come from the hall outside. "Stay here," she tells Shatterstorm and Spike. "I'll go check it out." She can hear Shatterstorm start to argue as she shuts the door. Don't wanna hear it.
There are ponies gathering in the hallway, around one of the doors at the other end. One of the ponies is Aeon. They surround a pink-maned nurse as she lies on the floor, her mascara running as she breaks down. Rainbow Dash sort of recalls this nurse... What was her name again? Braveheart? Breakheart?
Whatever her name is, the nurse sobs as ponies ask her what's wrong. Aeon looks up into the room the nurse had run out of, and his eyes widen. Rainbow Dash looks into the room and sees why.
Inside the room, there is a body hanging from a noose. The sound it makes as it swings lazily from the ceiling beam reminds Rainbow Dash of gritting teeth.
"A suicide?" Twilight says as she takes another bite from an apple.
Rainbow Dash nods. It had been almost an hour after all that excitement. The body had been cut from its noose and sent off to be burned before sundown, like all the others. From what Rainbow Dash had been told by the pink-maned nurse (whose name turned out to be Redheart), the suicide nurse (named Goodhealth) had been in charge of caring for several patients were suffering from a fever contracted from sustaining monster bites.
All of the patients listed as "dead" were foals.
As Rainbow Dash finishes retelling Redheart's account to Twilight, Shatterstorm, Spike, and Aeon, she gauges their expressions. Spike, Shatterstorm, and Twilight are disturbed by this news, but Aeon, surprisingly, seems nonchalant.
"It is classic guilt," Aeon opines. "All of those foals belonged to somepony here, and Nurse Goodhealth could not handle the gravity of their deaths under her surveillance."
Rainbow Dash snorts and walks up to Aeon dangerously. "How can you be so calm, Aeon?! A buncha kids just died, and their nurse killed herself because she thought she was to blame!"
Shatterstorm gets between the two, hoping to stop a fight. "Because that's what happens in the aftermath of tragedy, Dash. Ponies get hurt. Ponies die. Ponies feel like they have nothing left."
He, for a moment, is frightened by the withering glare Rainbow Dash gives him, and hopes she didn't notice it. An awful silence passes between them, growing and seething. Finally, Rainbow Dash snorts and turns to the door.
"I can't believe you guys," she says. Her voice has an uncharacteristic flatness to it that Twilight finds jarring. Rainbow Dash opens the door and begins to shake. Her next words are choked with tears. "I hate you."
And with that, Rainbow Dash exits the room, slamming the door shut. Awkwardly, Twilight looks to her bodyguard and the time traveler. She sighs. "Look, Rainbow Dash is just... really passionate. Sensitive. I don't think she meant what she said."
Shatterstorm shakes his head and says quietly, "Don't worry about it. I'd actually have worried about her if she didn't react like that."
Aeon nods. Twilight looks to him, expecting a better response. She doesn't get one. Instead, Aeon leaves.
It's a few minutes of depressed quiet before Twilight decides to get back to work on the rib.
When Aeon finds her, Rainbow Dash is a few hallways away, staring out a window. She looks out at Ponyville, where volunteers are busy with cleanup work, stallions and mares going to and fro clearing debris, making way for building contractors to start rebuilding within the next week.
But that isn't what she's looking at. Aeon can tell.
He sits next to her, thinking over what he can say. Should he tell her a little more of the truth behind himself? Should he explain?
Rainbow Dash gets up before he can say anything and walks away, silent, enraged. Aeon follows. Eventually, Rainbow Dash stops and turns, her face flushed and fighting tears.
"Look, would you stop following me?! I-I don't have anything to say to you! You—you're horrible, just dismissing what happened, l-like it's nothing!" She feels the urge to belt Aeon in the face—in his unchanged, unreadable face—as hard as she can. Break his muzzle. Knock out a few teeth.
But she doesn't. Hitting Aeon won't bring the foals or Nurse Goodhealth back.
Aeon walks forward and with his unicorn telekinesis, brings out a handkerchief. It hovers before her, as if he expects her to take it. When she refuses to, Aeon wipes away her tears himself. It's a strange thing to feel, cloth without a hoof behind it, wiping away the tears and snot that were beginning to run down her face.
"I apologize for saying all that," he says. "I have been to many of the worlds which Dracula's forces have destroyed, and in those worlds I have also seen tragedies like this occur. In my observations of time, I have seen both these kinds of tragedies and even worse."
Looking at him now, Rainbow Dash finds a new word to describe how she feels about Aeon.
Pity.
She pities him. He has seen so much horror and bloodshed, so much pain and agony, that he has become numb to it all. It's just another day for him. He...
...he can't feel anything anymore. He has lived for so long and seen so much more bad than good, that anything resembling a soul in him is gone now. His tears have dried up. His heart has gone cold. He has become a machine that merely has a mission to follow.
"I'm sorry," Aeon says again, this time his monotone slightly shaken. "Sometimes this one simply doesn't think."
Rainbow Dash hugs him, telling him she forgives him, and to not say anything like that again. Though, she isn't angry because he cannot think.
She's angry because he cannot feel.
A few hours have passed. Closer and closer does Twilight Sparkle get to cracking the mystery of this rib like an egg, and soon she will make an omelette with the answers. Rainbow Dash came back to the room in higher spirits than when she had left, relieving everypony immensely. Shatterstorm decided to take a break and get something to eat, asking Rainbow Dash if she wanted anything while he was in the dining area.
"Aw, so you do have a heart!" she chuckled, and ordered a hay pizza, specifically alfalfa.
A while after he leaves, Rainbow Dash then looks to the odd machine Twilight uses. Inside a large dome is the rib, suspended by the arcane magic produced by the machine. The dome itself is attached to a larger machine that takes up the rest of the table. It has all these dials, knobs, and switches that Dash assumes control certain settings within the dome. On the sidetable next to Twilight is a stack of papers that she has taken notes on, with quite a few sentences struck out.
After a few minutes of watching her friend work, Rainbow Dash asks, "Hey Twi? I'm curious. What does this thing do, anyway?"
Twilight, always eager to educate, goes off in a direction Rainbow Dash finds hard to follow. Something about how the dome analyzes, artificial environments, and then Rainbow Dash is lost by all these big words and scientists Twilight names, and blah, blah, blah, science, science, science.
"Forget I asked," Rainbow Dash interrupts. "If it does the job, I don't care how it does it." She blinks. "Say, what are you trying to do with it anyway?"
But before Twilight can explain, Rainbow Dash interrupts. "IN. LAYMARE'S TERMS. PLEASE."
Twilight nods. "Basically, I'm trying to zero in on this rib's exact magical frequency. Dracula seems to emit a frequency that's so unique, I'm... not sure it really even exists." She looks to her notes, then to the device's readings, then back to the rib and fiddles with some of the dials. "The only clue I have is that the frequency is somewhere in the 'Darkness' alignment, which honestly could mean anything. I wish I had a research team or something to help me, but the Arcane-Aura-Analyzer is all I've got."
Rainbow Dash waits for Twilight to elaborate... but Twilight goes right back to analyzing the readings. "So," Rainbow Dash says, "You're basically trying to find some way to seek out the other pieces of Dracula?"
"That's the plan," she replies. "Those other four pieces could be anywhere."
Raibow Dash cocks her head. "Are they in a cave?"
"Maybe."
"Are they in a box of scraps?"
"It's possible."
"...Are they in a cave, with a box of scraps?"
Twilight groans. "Probably! I don't know! Stop pestering me and find something else to do!"
Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes and walks over to Spike, who is reading a nature magazine. She sits down and leans against the bed, lazily reading over Spike's shoulder. Bored, bored, bored. Down the hall, she hears some excited talking.
She hears the door open, and she turns to see Shatterstorm back with the pizza she'd asked for, along with a few other items. Dancing about his legs as if threatening to trip him is Scootaloo, carrying a few other food boxes.
"...I mean, that's so cool!" she exclaims. "Shatterstorm, you're awesome!"
Shatterstorm sighs sheepishly as they enter the room. "Oh come on, i-it wasn't that cool."
Scootaloo stops and suddenly has this look like Shatterstorm not copping to his awesomeness is some kind of crime. "Whattaya mean, not awesome?! You got your cutie mark from speeding straight through a hurricane!" Rainbow Dash's eyes widen as Scootaloo reasserts her point: "YOU PUNCHED. A HURRICANE. AND THE HURRICANE. LOST."
His eyes dart away, as if he really wished he had just not said anything to this kid. Twilight looks to him, then to Scootaloo. "Somepony's just earned himself an admirer, I see," she chuckles. Shatterstorm grunts. Rainbow Dash looks at him in silent hatred. He's certainly earned himself an admirer...
...in her number one fan.
Changing the subject, Shatterstorm starts passing out the white styrofoam boxes. "Here's some late lunch. Dash wanted pizza, Spike wanted the soup, and I had to improvise with you, Miss Sparkle."
Twilight's face darkens. "Why didn't you ask me what I wanted?"
Spike sniffs the soup as he gives an answer. "He did. Like, four times. You were so into your study that you didn't hear him."
Twilight's face goes red. "...Oh. I'm sorry, I just..."
Shatterstorm smiles impishly as he gives her her designated lunch. "It's OK. If you don't like it, I'll just go grab something else."
Scootaloo, meanwhile, is talking to Rainbow Dash about how awesome Shatterstorm is, with Rainbow Dash munching lazily at her pizza. As much as she loves the little squirt, Scootaloo's misguided analysis of Shatterstorm gets to Rainbow Dash, hitting her ego in spots she didn't think were there. Then Scootaloo says something that causes her to explode.
"I think you two should get together! You'd be like the most awesome couple EVER!"
Scootaloo flinches as her face is splattered with chewed-up hay pizza. "WHAT?!?!" Rainbow Dash bellows. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD EVER WANNA BE WITH THAT CREEP?!" Her anger defuses the moment she sees Scootaloo's eyes stark with terror. Without saying a word, Scootaloo flees her hero with pizza on her face and tears in her eyes.
Awkward silence. Rainbow Dash facehoofs and groans. Nopony says anything as Rainbow Dash leaves the room.
For a little filly, Scootaloo is considerably fast, and Rainbow Dash has already lost track of where she went. She stops a blue unicorn and asks him if he'd seen a little orange filly, short purple mane, just turned ten.
"Um, no," he says. His white curly mane bobs as he looks at her a little more closely, his tone becoming cautious. "She's not lost, is she?"
Rainbow Dash shakes her head. "No, she just..." She purses her lips, hating what she has to admit. "I kinda blew my stack and now she's upset and I wanna apologize."
The unicorn nods. "Oh! Well, if she's like any other kid, I'd imagine she'd go into the bathroom to cry." He blinks, then adds quietly, "Because all kids do that when they're upset right? That—that wasn't just me?"
Rainbow Dash raises an eyebrow. "Uh... thanks for the tip."
As she tries to leave this weirdo behind, he asks, "Say, one good turn deserves another; have you seen a white mare? She's a unicorn, gorgeous, stutters a lot? Answers to the name Marble?"
Rainbow sighs inwardly, trying not to offend him, but seriously, there's a kid who needs consoling and all he can think about is...?
"Uh..."
"She's here one minute, there the next." He chuckles stupidly. "It's like there's more than one of her, and I just keep losing track!"
Rainbow fights a smirk. This guy has totally lost his Marbles. "No, I've spent so much time in one room, I haven't seen very many other ponies lately," she answers honestly.
"I bet she's with Big Macintosh," he says suddenly. "Yeah! I bet that's it." Rainbow Dash spots a look in his eye that tells her everything she needs to know about male insecurity. He turns and leaves. "If you need me, I'll be at Sweet Apple Acres!"
Rainbow Dash sighs and shakes her head, making her way to the ladies' room. It looks like it hasn't been taken care of in a while, with toilet paper strewn about and the trash cans overflowing, with a combined smell of cleaning chemicals and... something else. With everything that's going on, Rainbow Dash surmises the janitorial staff has their hooves full.
Upon entering, Rainbow Dash hears quiet sobbing from one of the stalls.
Scootaloo...
Rainbow Dash sits down next to the closed stall, listening for a moment, absorbing the gravity of what she'd done. She'd let down her biggest fan, yelled at her over nothing. Spat pizza all over her face over a silly suggestion she probably made without even thinking. It's not like she knew Rainbow Dash and Shatterstorm were on shaky terms at best.
Rainbow Dash sighs. "Hey, um... I'm sorry. For blowing up like that. Sometimes, I can be a little... no, I can be really stupid. I think I'm so cool, and I act like I'm so cool, but the fact is, I can be just as stupid as anypony else and I can do really... really uncool things. So I'm sorry."
Silence. The sobbing has stopped.
"I mean, you're... you're the coolest filly I've ever met, y'know? Look, don't worry about not being good at flying. That takes time and effort, and you're young, so you've got plenty of both. I'm just saying, you know..."
Rainbow Dash breathes deep. "You... You're like a sister to me. Always looks up to me. Thinks everything I say or do is super-important. And it was totally wrong of me to just do that, throw all of that in your face. And I'm sorry."
The door opens up and Rainbow Dash finds herself in a tight hug.
"Oh, Rainbow Dash, th-that was the nicest thing you've ever said to me..."
Rainbow Dash pats her affectionately on the head. "That's OK, Fluttershy, I won't ev—!" Her voice ends in a squeak. She pushes back Fluttershy and takes in just how very not-Scootaloo-at-all Fluttershy is.
"Where's Scootaloo?!"
Fluttershy thinks this over a moment. "Um, I-I'm sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I haven't seen her lately." Her eyes dart about. "Did you really mean what you said about my being like a sister to you?"
Rainbow Dash sighs. "We'll talk about that later. Right now, I need to find Scootaloo and apologize for blowing my stack."
"Well, if she's like any other filly, she's probably gone to the bathroom to cry." Fluttershy suddenly becomes more timid. "Th-That IS what upset fillies do, right? It wasn't just me?"
All cyan pegasi present facehoof. "We are in the bathroom, Fluttershy."
"Well then, maybe she's with her mother?"
"Sunny Day? I saw her outside clearing debris. Foals aren't allowed to leave the hospital yet."
The two continue to argue long after they leave the restroom. Fluttershy suggests that she is probably with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. Rainbow counters that she doesn't know where they are. They round a corner and head back in the direction of Twilight's room just as Fluttershy remembers that they'd be where Rarity is. They walk by some doctors and nurses as they head down the hall.
The two continue to argue long after they leave the restroom. Fluttershy suggests that she is probably with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. Rainbow counters that she doesn't know where they are. They round a corner and head back in the direction of Twilight's room just as Fluttershy remembers that they'd be where Rarity is. They walk by some doctors and nurses as they head down the hall.
Scootaloo, however, did not go into any restroom. Instead, she found a nice, quiet corner in a hallway as far away from Rainbow Dash as she could find. She finds this corner, and away from the others, she begins to cry. The tears come out quietly, like ponies exiting a church after a funeral service. She'd never heard Rainbow Dash so upset before, not even when Scootaloo became a fan of the Mare-Do-Well.
"Scootaloo?"
Scootaloo looks behind herself. Pinkie Pie is right there, a look of sympathy on her face. The party pony gently lifts a hoof and runs it through Scootaloo's mane, a wry and tired smile on her face. The past few days of foalsitting have worn her out, and it warms Scootaloo's heart that even now that she's been given a break from that duty, Pinkie Pie still has time for foals. "What's wrong?"
Scootaloo sniffles, wiping away the tears and pizza. "I-I think I just made Rainbow Dash mad..."
Pinkie Pie swoops her into a hug. "Aw, Scoots, don't take it so hard. What did you say?"
"All I did was say that she and Shatterstorm would make a good couple, and..."
The hug tightens. "You didn't mean it. It's OK. Dashie can be a total Meanie McSnapAtcha sometimes, so I don't think she meant to get mad over that."
After a time, the hug breaks. As is her wont, Pinkie Pie hid a handkerchief nearby for Scootaloo-face-cleaning emergencies like this one, and uses it accordingly. "Dashie would probably want to apologize to you, so why don't we go see her?" she asks. Scootaloo nods, and she and Pinkie Pie head back to the room where the rib is.
As they head down to the room, they start a conversation about whatever comes to mind, eventually settling on how much Scootaloo really admires Rainbow Dash. She really doesn't see how Shatterstorm could be that bad; after all, he did fly through a hurricane. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie feels a familiar tingle going up and down her back, just like when click nehw ekil tsuj ,kcab reh nwod dna pu gniog elgnit railimaf a sleef eiP einkiP ,ylnedduS .enacirruh a hguorht ylf did eh ,lla retfa ;dab taht eb dluoc mrotsrettahS woh ees t'nseod yllear ehS .hsaD wobniaR serimda yllaer oolatoocS hcum woh no gnilttes yllautneve ,dnim ot semoc revetahw tuoba noitasrevnoc a trats yeht ,moor eht ot daeh yeht sA
As they head down to the room, they start a conversation about whatever comes to mind, eventually settling on how much Scootaloo really admires Rainbow Dash.
"Sweetie Belle?"
The look on the mother's face as she receives the news that her baby is gone. The doctor and some nurses drag her away as she loses control of herself. The nurse in the room pulls the sheet over the baby, his eyes closed, his lips beginning to blue.
"Sweetie Belle, you need to eat."
The dogs. They were there. Right in front of her, behind her, all around her. At the lead was the St. Bernard she loved lots, only it wasn't him. It was a monster. Like everything was a monster. Her sister and Apple Bloom's sister, they both protect her from the monsters, stomping them in places that break. She can hear them break. Hear their whines as the warm blood leaks out from underneath burst stomachs.
"Come on, Sweetie Belle, darling, you need to eat."
Fire eats at Ponyville like the very hungry caterpillars from her favorite book when she was younger. Caterpillars made of flames bite away at buildings, leveling them, forming cocoons in the wreckage and leaving as ashen butterflies. Her schoolhouse is devoured, then her parents' favorite restaurant. Everything becomes one giant fairground of death. Rarity is there...
Rarity is here.
There is a spoon full of... pudding?... floating in the air in front of her. Sweetie Belle's stomach reminds her that she is hungry, and she leans forward, her mouth enveloping the spoon, her tongue accepting the tasteless pudding. As she swallows, her mind forgets the pudding in her mouth, once again becoming lost in this death fair.
Rarity spoons some more pudding for her. She hates this. All of this. That such a horrid thing had to happen to a place like Ponyville. To ponies that never did anypony else any harm. To ponies like her sister.
Here she is, shoveling food into Sweetie Belle's mouth like she's an infant. Her mind has regressed, retreated, said the doctor. Her young mind has received scars, likely from all the death she has seen. Another spoonful finds its way to Sweetie Belle's mouth.
She had already sent word to their parents four days ago. They'd been vacationing in Saddle Arabia while all this happened, and while she received no reply, there was no reason for her to doubt that her mother and father would ever abandon their babies when they needed them most.
Rarity's eyes close and she breathes. Right when they needed their parents most. Hilarious thought, Rarity. They're never there when you need them. That's why you decided to move out of their house when you were sixteen. It's why you spend more time with Sweetie Belle than they do. They aren't bad ponies, and she knows they love her and Sweetie Belle, but they're not the most responsible parents one could have.
Another spoonful finds Sweetie Belle's mouth.
Apple Bloom sits next to Sweetie Belle. This hallway is again crowded, this time with ponies suffering mental scars, seeking help from the councilors and psychiatrists in this wing. Apple Bloom had already seen some of their "harder cases", like a pony who thought she was a dog. When she started barking, Sweetie Belle had another freak out.
The psychiatrist had only spoken to Sweetie Belle for a few minutes before she came to the conclusion that Sweetie was suffering from the same thing a lot of ponies suffer after witnessing something traumatizing: pose-dramatic... poster automatic dress... It's a long and difficult term for Apple Bloom, so she likes to just say that Sweetie Belle has become "spooked."
Not knowing what else they could do to help their friend, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had gone off to fetch some food. Apple Bloom had bought some puddings from the stuttering white mare working the counter while Scootaloo struck up conversation with that pegasus guy with an ocean-green mane they'd seen with Twilight Sparkle sometimes, asking him how he got such a cool cutie mark. After he'd given an impressive story on how he'd earned it, Scootaloo immediately fangirled over him, and offered to help him take the food he'd ordered to Rainbow Dash and Twilight.
Apple Bloom, still at a loss for how to help her friend, looks to Rarity's face as Rarity thinks about their parents. There is such pain on her face, a look that children often think is aimed at them if they do something that upsets an adult. "S'not Sweetie Belle's fault," she says finally.
"What do you mean?" asks Rarity.
"That she's like this. She... She doesn't mean it, Rarity. She juss... ain't herself."
Apple Bloom looks to Sweetie Belle's face and sees what she's been seeing there for a while now. Sweetie Belle is lost. She'll be back later, she usually is; and even then, the psychiatrist said it would take a little while for her to come back fully when she isn't in "this state." But for now, Sweetie Belle is in "this state", where she's lost in a labrynthine fairground made up of dogs and monsters and fire and dead foals her age.
"I'm not mad at her," Rarity says. "I'm just... angry, a little at myself, a little at our parents, but mostly at the monsters responsible for all this." She heaves a sigh. Another spoonful finds its way to silent, lost Sweetie Belle.
"That's why you and yer friends're gonna go an give 'em what-fer, aint'cha?"
"We plan to, but Twilight has to work a little first before we do that." Another spoonful and the pudding is finally empty. Rarity sighs. She looks from her sister to Apple Bloom. "How's your farm, by the way? Is Applejack well?"
As Apple Bloom goes at length at the repair work being done at the farm, Sweetie Belle's mind once again goes over recent events, like they're an ugly movie her parents would never allow her to watch. Fire. Monsters. Death. She wants to escape. To get back to reality, where her sister is, where her life is.
So she takes a deep breath. She closes her eyes. Breathes again, more slowly this time. She opens her eyes and is back in reality where her sister is.
Only it isn't her sister.
It's a monster.
Sweetie Belle's scream is loud enough to cause most of the other ponies in the hall to jump right out of their skins. Rarity drops the pudding cup and reaches forward to hold her sister.
The monster in front of Sweetie Belle reaches out its long black claws, its doglike face twisted in glee at the sight of its prey. Sweetie Belle jumps from her seat, running by the spiders spitting blood at her from the walls. The floors protest every step she takes with a howling scream that causes her ears to ring. The hospital has become a nightmare to her.
Rarity calls after her sister, running after her, past the other ponies, demanding her sister to stop. Apple Bloom follows her, confused and terrified at what is going on. Her own pudding cup sits on the floor where she'd left it, untouched.
She hears a roar behind her. It doesn't come from her feet, from the floor. She looks behind herself and sees the monster from before chasing her, howling at her, howling her name. Sweetie Belle runs and runs and runs, runs as fast as her little legs can carry her.
There are trees in this hallway. Trees with the faces of old and dead ponies, and they look at her and begin to chant blasphemously to her. The trees know Celestia is weak and cannot help her. The trees know every awful thing she's ever done or thought of. They know every time she has said in her heart that she hates her family and wishes she were somepony else.
As she runs by the trees, the monster behind her brushes by them easily.
She's closing in on Sweetie Belle now, brushing past doctors and nurses and other patients who have no idea what the heck is going on. Rarity calls her sister again, to stop this at once, she only wants to know what's wrong. Apple Bloom does her damnedest to keep up, but finally trips and falls.
Rarity is just behind her sister now.
The monster is right behind her now!
Rarity reaches out a hoof and grabs her.
The monster reaches out a claw and grabs her!
Just as she turns Sweetie Belle around, Rarity feels a flash of little hoof against her face. "No!" Sweetie Belle screams. "No, stay away from me!! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!"
Just as the monster closes its claws around Sweetie Belle, and she hits it, telling it to leave her alone, she feels it, a sudden cold. It envelops her, steals the air from her lungs as her vision goes white.
Cold.
Whiter.
Colder.
Sweetie Belle's words become incomprehensible jumbles of words that Rarity can't understand. Thick, hot drool begins to leak from her mouth, beginning to froth. Her eyes roll upward, backward, into her head.
In her panic, Rarity screams. Screams for somepony, anypony, to help her baby sister.
Her baby sister is dying.
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Noooooooooooooo, Sweetie Belle!
Wow. Can't wait for moar!
As a fan of both Castlevania and FIM I must say I am very impressed that your able to take two polar opposite franchises and make it work. Very well done.
I do a have few questions bout chp.7 specifically about Aeon's explanation of the events leading up to this.
1)What exactly became of the "Vampire Killer"? It struck me as kinda odd that Aeon makes no mention of the whip.
2)When Aeon say's that a friend of his had gone to stop Richter is he referring to Alucard?
3) Finally who is this very foolish boy that scattered Dracula's parts to other dimensions?
Once again I 'd like say that is a very well made story and cant wait to read of it.
1502597
1) The Vampire Killer stays in the Castlevania continuity. But because Richter became tainted with Dracula's evil, the Belmonts he produced afterward were rejected by the whip. It won't accept another Belmont for as long as the taint remains in their bloodline--which, in all likelihood, was Dracula's plot the whole time. It won't be until Julius Belmont is born that the bloodline is finally whole again, and able to use the whip.
The reason Aeon doesn't mention this to the Mane Six is for the same reason Twilight doesn't mention her brother being sick to her friends. That information just isn't important right now. I mean, Portrait of Ruin showed us that anyone else who uses the whip must pass a trial, and even then, it slowly kills its user. It's not like any of these ponies are going to use it.
2) Who else could it be?
3)
thank you for answering my questions, sry if the the alucard one seemed kinda obvious i have to play judgement so I'm a little out the loop as to Aeon's status with the rest of the Castlevania cast. I read a basic summery of the plot so know who Aeon is and what his involment with the game is but beyond that I don't all that much bout him.
1503455
Eh, that's OK. Judgment didn't sell very well, so I'm not all that surprised more people don't know about Aeon. I'm actually surmising that most people expected Alucard or Simon Belmont to be somewhere in the cast, and while they DO both appear later on in the story, Aeon was the only character who I was most comfortable with hopping through dimensions. I mean, he already travels through time, how would dimension-hopping be that much harder?
1504332
That and having a Belmont or Alucard show up this early would destroy the amazing sense of terror your story conveys.
Hard to have a scary story if one of characters was somebody who could kick Dracula's ass from here to next week. lol
When exactly is this occurring in Castlevania's Timeline? Bloodlines? Portrait of Ruin? Sometime after Portrait of Ruin?
1510614
The only real rule when I was going into this was anything goes, really. Lemme explain.
Have you ever wondered why there are monsters from Egypt, Greece, or Japan living in Castle Dracula? Or why Frankenstein's creature has a chainsaw? Or why Frankenstein's creature even existed in the 1600's when he was first built in the mid-1800's? Or why skeletons ride around on motorcycles? Or why there are hotdogs and Chicago-style pizza in the candles during the late 1700's? Or why there are occasionally robots wandering the halls?
It's like this.
Castlevania makes its own damn rules. A few of Dracula's minions even have some control over time, so no matter what year it is outside, it's always a mishmash of different eras inside. It's an Eldritch Location in every way.
So whichever era in the Castlevania timeline this story takes place in doesn't really matter, especially since the Castlevania world won't be featured--save for the Castle itself, of course.
1510717
wow, that actually makes a whole lot of sense XD
I just thought of an explanation of why Dracula's curse on the Belmont clan is lifted by 1999. Like in Simon's Quest, killing Dracula would lift the curse, but it's likely that Dracula used a stronger curse than he did with Simon, but every time he is revived and killed, a part of the curse breaks, thus when 1999 comes around, his followers have indirectly caused the curse he placed on the Belmonts to be destroyed
I'm not sure if that's what you already had in mind with the curse on the Belmont clan, but I just thought I'd share my hypothesis ^^;
I'm deeply impressed with this one. Do you know how hard it is to find a Castlevania fanfiction, let alone a good one?
I can't wait for more. Will any other bosses from the games show up, like Shaft or Giles de Rais?
1688188
Several bosses will appear later. You'll see them all pretty much gathered at the end of this first book, discussing their next course of action. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good use for Shaft or Gilles, even though I thought they were some pretty cool villains.
The questions I asked myself regarding which villains to use were:
[] Is this villain hardly ever used? If so, what do I know about this villain?
[] What is this villain's strong points and weak points?
[] How can I use this villain? Will it be effective?
As for other Castlevania characters, we'll be meeting who wrote the magic book Aeon gave Twilight near the end of this book. And in one of the next stories, we'll meet someone else as well. I had to argue with him a bit to get him in, but hey, everypony needs gold, even in hell these days.
I'm sorry I just couldn't resist
1737338
I DO like Castlevania, don't I?
What would you say about this fic? Which parts did you like or not like?
1738958 you also like men? :P
1738958
I'll get back to you on that
1739566 *shakes fists* LIIIIIIIEEEEEEES!
1742472 Yup. Actually, Dirt Nap became his Host Body. Sort of like how Dario Bossi was Aguni's host body.
I suppose now is would be the best time to mention this:
Just before I started reading this yesterday afternoon, while doing the dishes, I had an idea. A WONDERful idea that was simply OUTRAGEOUS. No, MORE THAN outrageous. It was TERRIFYING, and I wasn't sure I had the WILLPOWER to go through with proposing it. I mean, if I had suggested it, there might just be an angry mob waiting to start a MANHUNT for me, and I'd have to be gone in a FLASH.
HINT HINT SUBTLETY OF AN ELEPHANT HINT HINT
Oh, wow. I hardly know Castlevania at all, but this story is amazing. It took me some time to get past the present-tense and a bit of the floweriness in the earlier chapters, but since the action started, this story has been rife with powerful scenes. Amazing job.
That was a great comeback. I'm gonna remember that one.